HAMPSHIRE cricket followers worried by the club's £4m-plus losses have been told to expect a much brighter future.

Peter Sharkey, who writes a weekly Business of Sport column for the Daily Echo, doesn't believe the losses, as revealed by the Echo last Friday, are as bad as they initially appear.

And he is confident Hampshire Cricket are in a far better position to recover from their 2002 losses - the Rose Bowl plc's operating loss was £1.1m in the year leading up to October 31 2002 - than many other counties would be.

It was the third year running that Hampshire had announced a loss, and the 2002 figure was a sizeable leap on 2001 (£246,000 loss) and 2000 (£301,000 loss).

In all, Hampshire's losses were over £4m but over half of that was a 'paper' figure and depreciation and not actual monetary loss.

"Losses of this nature are handleable," said Sharkey, referring to the latest accounts. "I wouldn't say that was a total horror story.

"I would say Hampshire's usage of their facilities is first class.

"You've got a golf club, a health and fitness centre, pop concerts, and conference and banqueting facilities in addition to the cricket ground.

"I wouldn't say there's many counties around with that many different revenue streams, that many different assets.

"With a county cricket ground you're only going to get people in to watch cricket for a few months of the year.

"What Hampshire have done is to build other facilities and efficiently use them."

Sharkey continued: "What Hampshire are aiming to do reminds me a lot of Leicester City FC. When they built the Walkers Stadium, they knew they could only get people in to watch football every other Saturday for nine months of the year.

"They set out to brand themselves as the biggest and best conference location in the East Midlands, and for five days of the week they get around 2,500 people in the stadium for conferences.

"County cricket clubs are reliant so much upon the ECB grant, which last year was for £1.3m. Without that, most counties would be in real dire straits.

"The more different sources of income you have, and Hampshire have quite a few, the better you will be in the long term.

"There will always be people who want to play golf, always people who want to go to a health club, and always people who like watching pop bands.

"It's very early days for Hampshire at the Rose Bowl and I wouldn't say these sort of figures are horrific."

Already Hampshire's accounts should be looking healthier this year given the record-breaking 9,000 attendance for the opening Twenty20 Cup tie against Sussex earlier this month.

"The Twenty20 Cup will be a money-spinner for some counties, and a good run in the Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy always helps as well," said Sharkey.

"Those are the sort of games which always attract the best crowds."

The most profitable county club in 2001 - the last year for which figures for all county clubs are available - were Warwickshire with a profit around the £750,000 mark.

"Surrey also made a good profit but those two counties are established as Test match venues," said Sharkey. "That makes a massive difference.

"Nottinghamshire have recently signed an international agreement with the ECB saying they will stage at least one Test match every year until 2011.

"For that they get paid a staging agreement fee by the ECB and it's worth a couple of hundred thousand each year.

"I know Hampshire are trying to get Test match cricket at the Rose Bowl in the next few years, and if they do that they will be ahead of schedule compared to Durham and their Riverside ground."

Sharkey is an ex-Gloucestershire CCC member and he added: "They lost £127,000 in 2001 and £49,000 in 2001 and during that time they won three one-day trophies.

"And that's how hard it can be to make money in county cricket - they had the best one-day team in the country and they still lost money.

"Hampshire have an advantage over other counties given their facilities."